Supermarkets Go Solar

SupermarketAustrian citizens can now be proud of their local community. They neighboring supermarket had taken a great step towards more sustainable and protective future by choosing solar power and other sources of energy for its operations. Solar house systems or solar panel homes are not a big novelty, but a commercial building that is fully operating on renewable and eco-friendly energy may come as a surprise for lots of us. This supermarket doesn’t consume any other energy, coming from sources that are not natural. Or even if it does, the supermarket itself produces more energy than it consumes.

LOVE Architecture, an Austrian architecture company, founded in 1988, that is working in the field of creative urbanism, having its aim at creating real estate that are firm but yet exciting. Therefore their masterpiece can be a great source of pride for them. As now the fully-sustainable supermarket is a reality in Austria. This supermarket is not only a 100 percent self-sufficient, but also produces more energy than it actually uses in daily operations.

It may be an interesting fact, as the supermarket specializes on organic, bio and healthy foods, and on its outside it also walks an environmentally-friendly, ecological, and healthy path. It is equipped with a highly insulated envelope, energy efficient lighting, and solar photovoltaic system, which supply energy to it, mini hydro turbine, green roof surface and non-toxic materials. All of each can easily be recycled at the latest stage of usage or at the end of their useful life. What is more, The Climate Protection Supermarket in Graz city, Austria, also holds a special gold certification from the ÖGNI (Austrian Green Building Council).

This unique Climate Protection Supermarket constructed and designed by LOVE Architecture, which actually doesn’t specialize on solar house systems, is fully self-sufficient in energy production and in fact produces more energy than the store actually uses. Therefore this supermarket is the first of its kind, meaning energy self-sufficient, in Austria. To achieve this extraordinary efficiency, the building itself had to be designed in a special way in order to lessen the energy consumption. Therefore it was designed to minimize heat gain and loss. Solar photovoltaic systems installed to supply energy for the operations receive energy from the sun during the day and convert it into electricity.

If you thought that the innovation stops on the inside, you may be surprised by what this supermarket hides on the outside. The roof features special green roof circles that are used to infiltrate rain water and projection around the building.  Do not be surprised, but this supermarket also has a fully equipped parking. It was also maximized to achieve best possible hydrologic balance. Majority of building materials are solvent free, as well as non-toxic, highly sustainable, easily separable and most importantly reusable. A specialized solar photovoltaic power plant is placed in the parking lot, and a hydropower turbine is planned to be installed for additional energy generation. These two systems work closely together in order to generate more sustainable power than the building actually needs and uses, and therefore its excess is fed to the local grid.




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